CFU Press Release
For Immediate Release
July 5, 2020 9:00 A.M EST
Contact: contact@campaignforuyghurs.org
www.campaignforuyghurs.org
On July 5-7, 2009, the world watched in horror, but with little understanding of what they were viewing, as thousands of lives were destroyed and China played as the victim just as they continue to do at present. Thus, unsurprisingly, it is ludicrous to suggest that anyone can actually believe the Chinese government reports on what happened in Urumchi. The same government which mowed down student protestors in Tiananmen with guns and tanks does not inspire faith in its narrative regarding how peaceful protests turned violent. In a country that considers any type of free expression threatening, it is tragic that these massacres have continued to be twisted as propaganda used to control Han Chinese citizens in fearing the Uyghurs and justifying their genocide. Today, Campaign for Uyghurs (CFU) remembers with somber reflection.
CFU Press Release
For Immediate Release
July 4, 2020 9:00 A.M EST
Contact: contact@campaignforuyghurs.org
www.campaignforuyghurs.org
The land of the free, and the home of the brave. On the occasion of the anniversary of this pivotal point in American history, we acknowledge the gift of freedom, and remember the hope that we hold on to for the Uyghur people to enjoy freedom and justice. We acknowledge the need to defend this right, and we ought not let those hostile to our principles use this freedom to defend the indefensible. It would be wrong to deny the many times that the United States, and its founders, did not stand for right morals. But we still hold these truths to be self-evident, whether or not they have always been applied correctly: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
Hong Kong protesters marching in the Causeway Bay district, Hong Kong, demonstrating against the Chinese government which is stripping them of their freedoms and democratic rights. Photograph by Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times
CFU Press Release
For Immediate Release
July 1, 2020 11:00 A.M EST
Contact: contact@campaignforuyghurs.org
www.campaignforuyghurs.org
Today is a day for solemnity. It need not be the end of the struggle, but we at Campaign for Uyghurs mourn with the brave citizens of Hong Kong today, and brace for what comes after the end of two systems. Hong Kong was the last bastion of freedom for many people in China, and was an important safe haven for all those who stand for human rights activism, for those who are true followers of the law, for freedom of the press, for freedom of religion. The last place near Beijing that would call out its evils without the swift repercussion of the Chinese regime’s evil, heavy hand. We have faith that the people of Hong Kong will continue to find a way to fight for what they deserve: a life free of Beijing’s oppression.
Jevlan Shirmehmet holding up a picture of his mother, Suriye Tursun
In a video testimony filmed for Campaign for Uyghurs, Jevlan Shirmehmet asks again for real answers from the Chinese government regarding the disappearance of his mother, Suriye Tursun.
Jevlan has lived in Turkey since the year 2011. He has been compelled to become a vocal advocate for his family members after they were forcibly disappeared. In February of this year, a Chinese embassy official in Turkey called him to tell him that his mother had been detained for aiding terrorists.
The release of the latest study by Dr. Adrian Zenz offers further concrete evidence of the Chinese government’s genocidal crimes. Using Chinese regional data, Chinese documents, and interviews, the plummeting birth rate, population statistics, number of sterilization procedures, and even massive increase in birth control which was previously reported by witness testimony to be mandatory, all confirm that the atrocities can no longer be ignored.
In the early hours of June, 26, 2009, a brutal attack on Uyghur workers in the Shao Guan toy factory which resulted in the deaths of multiple Uyghurs. Campaign for Uyghurs solemnly remembers this event, a tragedy that later sparked the Urumchi protests, incidents that were used and abused by the Chinese government to justify their fierce genocide of the Uyghurs.
The city of Shaoguan, a primarily ethnically Hakka region, was an environment where tensions easily flourished and complaints about unfair treatment of Uyghurs in the factory were widespread.
Sayragul Sauytbay, a victim of the Chinese Communist Government’s torture
“Anyone who has been tortured remains tortured. Anyone who has suffered torture never again will be at ease in the world. Faith in humanity, already cracked by the first slap in the face, then demolished by torture, is never acquired again.”-Jean Amery, tortured in Auschwitz.
On this day established by the United Nations to speak out against torture and to support the victims and survivors of it, Campaign for Uyghurs affirms that China is one of the main modern perpetrators of torture, unabashedly using horrific techniques to carry out large-scale ethnic cleansing of the Uyghurs. The complexities of the psychological impacts these atrocities have created and will continue to create are appalling. We need not say more than the words of but a few survivors themselves.
